BREAKING NEWS: Kitzhaber Pushes for Across-the-Board Budget Cuts (Oregon Gov. Forced to make cuts)

KGW.com ^ | 08/27/2002 | By AP and KGW Staff

[scrubber]

Governor John Kitzhaber recommended across-the-board cuts to solve a budget shortfall he says could reach $450 million.

Kitzhaber made the announcement in a press conference in Salem this afternoon. He said the cuts could include the reduction of the school year by three weeks, closing four of the state's five regional juvenile facilites and laying off 100 state troopers, among other things.

He said that each day lawmakers delay taking action, they will deepen the impacts of cuts.

The governor is also calling for a fifth special session sometime next week. He hasn't said what day the session should start. Kitzhaber wants lawmakers to meet soon enough to put a tax measure, possibly an income tax increase, on the Nov. 5 ballot. He said the deadline for doing that is Sept. 7.

He said erasing the shortfall solely with cuts would slash spending by as much as 20 percent for the rest of the two-year budget period ending next June. Leaders of the Republican-run Legislature didn't rule out a tax increase but gave no indication that their opposition has lessened.

Kitzhaber said he continues to oppose bond borrowings to close the budget hole because that would shift debt onto the 2003 Legislature. Legislators last week upheld his veto of a bill that would have borrowed $50 million from future cigarette tax revenue to use for state school support.

Republicans have accused Kitzhaber of agreeing to things in private only to switch his stance later.

Kitzhaber has said GOP lawmakers' accounts have left out conditions he attached to agreements and said Monday the open meeting was fine.

Lawmakers last week finished a fourth special session, a two-day meeting held just to act on Kitzhaber's vetoes of two measures from the third special session, in June.

Legislators overrode his veto of a bill shifting $267 million in school aid to the next budget, to shrink the shortfall in this budget. It allows schools districts to borrow against the future payment in this budget period.

The June special budget session dealt with a gap mostly caused by a $550 million decline in income tax revenue, and the new hole is approaching that magnitude.

Kitzhaber last week outlined potential spending cuts based on a $350 million dollar shortfall, estimating the gap would be between $300 million and $400 million. He said Monday new data indicate a shortfall of around $450 million. The recession has caused tax revenue to plunge by more than $1.3 billion since lawmakers adopted the $12 billion, two-year budget in July 2001.

[scrubber]

Even with Squishy Oregon Republicans, Dr. John is forced to make across the board cuts. The only semi-bad part is the doctor was able to save his own pet programs and concentrate the cuts on visible items like education and health programs in an effort to make Republicans look bad because they refused to increase taxes.

[Joe Boucher]

We have to raise revenue or cut govt? Ok start with anything that will make them think the sky is falling. The childrens services, police protection, etc.etc.
How about cutting things like aid to any and all welfare agencies? How about cutting all unnecessary funding to all govt. agencies. How about having the govt. employees take pay cuts?

[hattend]

The recession has caused tax revenue to plunge by more than $1.3 billion since lawmakers adopted the $12 billion, two-year budget in July 2001.

Too bad he killed the timber industry. The taxes/fees collected from them could have saved him the trouble.

[hsmomx3]

Yep--or how about cutting back on how many "holidays" they have off with pay.

Watch those property taxes as they will probably soar.

[Lockbox]

ditto

[plain talk]

Wow, I got it. Why not just shut the government down?

[r9etb]

He said the cuts could include the reduction of the school year by three weeks, closing four of the state's five regional juvenile facilites and laying off 100 state troopers, among other things.

Well, here's the standard list of what "budget cuts" means. Obviously there's nothing else in the state budget that could absorb the overruns....

The politics here is obvious, of course. He's pushing for a tax increase.

[Aric2000]

That would make it too obvious that they aren't needed by 90% of the population...

[cherry]

how about eliminating that irritating "you can't pump your own gas " stuff , make things a little cheaper in Oregon, and whallaa"...the economy might just take off....

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the good news about the upcoming cuts. The main reason that the budgets have to be cut besides the leftist spending is the worse Governor in the history of Oregon with the anti business Watermelon Green Jihadists has created massive unemployment in the state.

Here is a link of how Oregonians and some of out of Oregon are taking the battle to the Watermelon Green Jihadists in Oregon: (It is time to announce the official kickoff of F.I.R.E. or Fighting Irresponsible Radical Environmentalism)

Join us in returning sanity to the forests of Oregon instead of the Green Insanity! Thanks!

[for-q-clinton]

So true. I'm not from Oregon, but the republicans there better get some good wasteful spending examples to say we can cut that out instead of cutting cops and shortening the school year.

How about they get rid of the Principal's secretary and make the assistant principal do the work? How about laying off every third non-teaching teacher? How about restructuring the way you pay your school administrators? How about delaying cutting the grass on gov't/public property by 1 or 2 weeks? How about getting rid of the cleaning service in your office and have you clean your own office?

Just some suggestions.

[unixfox]

Wow, I got it. Why not just shut the government down?

YOU SIR are a GENIUS !!

[Ceoman]

Kitzhaber's health plan is 9% of the total budget...

[Almondjoy]

Why should gov't employees take pay cuts.. just cause they do a dirty job you don't want to do.. or are a part of the system that you don't like why should they suffer for your behalf. Why don't you take a pay cut so your company and make a profit and pay more taxes?

[B-Cause]

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Why should gov't employees take pay cuts.. just cause they do a dirty job you don't want to do.. or are a part of the system that you don't like why should they suffer for your behalf. Why don't you take a pay cut so your company and make a profit and pay more taxes?

What kind of a sick response is that?
Go out into the real world (commercial/business) and find a job!

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[jimtorr]

""Go out into the real world (commercial/business) and find a job!""

Sir, I live in the "real world", and have done for the past thirty years. Unless, of course, you count those six years in the military as not being in the "real world".

I agree with Almondjoy. Sure, there are large numbers of government jobs that aren't really necessary. However, many of those are administrators. 98% of the rest are doing honest work that needs doing, and that should be done by government.

I lived in Oregon for 2.5 years, and I have family there today. One of them worked for government for eight years. He was a maintence technician at OSU. His job took him into dorm rooms, class rooms, laboratories, horse barns etc., etc. That is an example of job that should be run by the state, for security reasons.

In 1994, I think it was, a referendum passed that required that the benefits of all state employees be reduced by 15%.

Tell me, sir, how you and your family would do if your benefit package were cut by 15%? That includes pension, insurance, vacation days, sick days and I don't remember what all.

[2banana]

98% of the rest are doing honest work

Ha ha - that is a good one. From my own experiences and that of friends (some with over 30+ years in state and federal government) the break down is more like this:

50% are absolute deadwood and worthless. They could be fired/laid off and no one would know the difference.

25% are marginal and if you hold thier feet to the fire and/or sit on them you might get some work out of them

25% are actually good workers and pull the slack for the other 75%

[stubernx98]

You must be a government employee, with 3 - 4 weeks vacation 12 sick days(and you use em all), operate at 15 to 20% less productivity than the private sector, have your reitierment paid for(PERS II) get to work late and leave early.

Don't stand near a building where govenment emplyees work because you will be stampeded to death at 4:30. Public employees get 20 to 25% more benefits than equivelent jobs in the private sector. Almost impossible to fire(unless you express conservative views.

I hve consulted in the private and public sector on productivity, compensation, and organization for many years. Middle management in the public sector is pathetic, which causes most of the low porductivity at the lower levels. Throw in the policical rascals at the top and your doomed. Happens in the private sector too, but then they go out of business.

How to reduce costs: Schools -- Vouchers
Department of Transportation - eliminate union wage requirement in contracting.
Have all state employees count off and eliminate every third one.

[bybybill]

This is madding. The solution for Oregon budget problems is so simple that even Rats like Gov. Idiot should be able to understand it. Sell some state owned timber before it burns up which would put some Oregonians to work so they could pay taxes that would help the state out of its budget problem. Oh, by the way Gov., this maybe just a rumor, but I heard that if you plant little trees where you cut big trees, overtime, they become big treea too.

[jimtorr]

50% are absolute deadwood and worthless. They could be fired/laid off and no one would know the difference.

Your estimate is way too high. More like 20%, I think. Private business really isn't much better. Companies with more that 100 employees probably have on the order of 10% deadwood. The larger corporations rival government for deadwood ratios. The same proportion of good people doing all the work applies to business also. I see it every day. Read a few dozen Dilbert cartoons. Scott Adams knows.

Of course, certain cities have a much higher deadwood ratio. Cities where government employment is used as a form of welfare, such as Washington, DC and Batimore. In those cities, your deadwood ratio may be too low. Lets reform, then, and allow supervisors to get rid of the deadwood. Cutting salaries across the board only encourages the best people to leave government to the less than competent.